


Everything Old Is New Again

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Extra Treat, F/M, Getting Together, human/non-human - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-17 04:13:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13651203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: Ahsoka and Rex go on a mission together.





	Everything Old Is New Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [countessofbiscuit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/countessofbiscuit/gifts).



Ahsoka had been running missions for the Rebellion for oven ten years, since before there was a true Rebellion. Back in the day, she'd met with Senator Organa and his contacts, and they'd give hell to the Empire in small ways, and she had wandered the galaxy recruiting more souls to their cause. She gave a glance to her partner. She'd been trying to recruit him for years, only to find out Wolffe had intercepted all her transmissions.

"I thought you hated me," she whispered to Rex now. They hid in the thick wall shafts of this old base, waiting for the last of the Imperial troops to evacuate. Something about the base's computer being sabotaged and incorrectly reporting it was about to explode. Not her best work, but the most expedient she could come up with at the time.

From the outer base, the alarm rang out: _"All hands, evacuate! All hands!"_

"I thought you hated me more." He gave her a quick shrugging smile. "I hadn't seen you since Mandalore, and all the Jedi you ever knew were cut down by men who looked like me. I started to think you took that personally. Some people do." He ended on a note of tight annoyance.

"He'll come around. You've a very likeable person."

"You say that now. We haven't seen each other in well over a decade. I'm a terrible old grump now."

"You were a grump back in the old days. I liked you anyway. Still do." She tried not to dwell on the past when she could avoid it. Even the best memories reminded her of friends who were long dead. After all this time, Ahsoka still ached when she touched her grief for Master Skywalker and Master Kenobi, and every lost companion who had rejoined the Force and left her here alone to mourn their absence. The good times had been good, though, and she focused on those now. "You treated me as an equal, not a little kid. Most of the time. I always appreciated that about you."

"Well," he said, glancing out through the small grill that was their only view while another squad ran past their hiding place. "It helped to remember that you were older than I was. Figured it put us on a more or less even keel, no matter which one of us was giving orders at the time."

"I guess it did."

As she'd feared, more memories tumbled out, and there was the sorrow that came with the happy, gold-tinged days. She had carried these griefs in solitude for so long, unable to share with anyone who understood. Senator Organa had shared some of her friends, but he could never hope to understand the depth of her relationships with them. Kanan had known even fewer, for all that he'd seen the same faces in his youth. With no one left to grieve with, or to celebrate the memories of better times, Ahsoka had swallowed down her past.

It made her feel greedy and selfish now as she said, "I missed you."

"I bet I missed you more."

"I'd take that bet."

It had always been easy to smile with him, joke with him. Rex had been a friend to her, and she'd grown to cherish that friendship.

The noises outside faded slowly. The evacuation was taking more time than the Empire ought to waste. They shared a glance. Ahsoka pressed a button to activate one of their remote explosives. Immediately the evacuation kicked back into high gear.

"There we go," she said. "Pick up the pace."

"These stormtroopers are useless." If Rex was the kind to spit, he'd have heaved a gobbet on the floor in disgust. Some of the other clones had developed that habit, each one fumbling his way forward into becoming his own man, not just a replaceable face with a number. "If those were clones out there, you can be sure we'd have emptied this place by now."

"Then I'm glad the Empire is staffed by personnel who aren't as efficient as clones. That gives me hope we'll beat them someday."

He watched her face. There wasn't much light in this crawlspace, and not much room, either. Ahsoka hadn't much noticed the tight quarters. She became aware only now, as Rex's eyes took in her face, the adult shape of her features. "You really do think you'll win this fight?"

"I believe we will. I've spent years finding others who believe the same thing, connecting them to one another, and building strength out of small tools. One cell on this planet, one revolutionary in that city, a sympathetic pirate there, and all of us fighting for the same purpose: the freedom of the galaxy from tyranny."

"And they still follow you even after you give them that lousy speech?" His mouth quirked, unable to hide the joke.

Her mouth quirked in return. "You'd be amazed how many sign up on the spot. I've run out of the sign-up bonus pins."

"No holders out? No one you have to do any special persuasion on?"

She turned her face away in mock offense. "I would never use the Force to convince someone to join the Rebellion."

"Not even if they asked you nicely?"

She turned back to him, in careful consideration. That had sounded almost flirty. Of course she'd gone through her childish crush on him when she'd been fifteen, just as she'd made her way through crushes on almost all of the various important people in her life at that age. He'd treated her infatuation with kindness though not with any reciprocal interest.

But she wasn't fifteen any longer, and neither was he.

"That depends. How nicely are they asking? Are they asking me to compel them to do something, or are they asking me to use the Force to move them where I want them?"

She extended a touch of power, just enough to lift him onto his toes before setting him back again on his own weight. His eyes flashed at her. For a moment, she thought he was angry but the moment fled as she recognized a different emotion. She'd intended to flirt back. It had been a long time since she'd flirted with anyone, though. As he blinked and turned away, his face making the excuse that he needed to check on the evacuation of the Imperials, she wondered if he thought she was making a pass at him. It had been even longer since she'd attempted that.

"They seem to be clearing out," Rex said, still not looking at her.

"It's about time. You're right. They're not half as good as clones." She rested her hand on his arm, her own face looking out through the tiny grill. She felt the shiver move through him, bumps raising on the skin of his arm like she'd chilled him.

"You're right, too. We can kick their rears from here to Coruscant. We just need time."

"Does that mean you believed my lousy speech?"

He turned back to her. "It means I believe in you." She'd read him right. Whatever their ages, he used to see her as a young girl. Now she was a woman, and they'd known each other for most of their lives no matter how many years they'd spent apart.

"We have time now," she said, which felt awkward even to her own ears. She really was out of practice with romance. Before she could become embarrassed, Rex's other hand moved to cover hers where she was touching him. She felt the race of his pulse, sensed his awareness of their close quarters, and on his features she saw his growing understanding that the desire was mutual.

"These jelnards could take hours to leave."

"I guess we'll have to find some way to pass the time together," she said. "Fortunately, I have some ideas."


End file.
